Wizards who refuse to use blast spells

[Shawn_Kehoe]

Hiya,

Amongst my group of friends, there has often been a conceit that wizards who resort to Fireball and Magic Missile are unoriginal and therefore poor choices. I never quite understood the logic myself, but as the DM I tried to let them play the characters they want.

The current party wizard is a level 7 character who specialises in non-damaging combat spells. His favourites include Summon Monster (always Fire Beetles or Celestial Bison), Grease, Obscuring Mist, Web, Haste and Glitterdust.

Grease and Web aren't "save-or-die" spells, but I dread them nonetheless:

a) They make creatures boring to run - oops, I failed a balance check or a reflex save, no movement for me! Nothing makes a big boss lose his aura of menace like repeatedly falling over in his square.

b) They add to the book-keeping - a Fireball kills the monsters and is done with it. A Web doesn't kill the monster, but it adds a lot of overhead to the battle, and drags them out.

c) They just aren't very heroic - it seems that most battles against powerful opponents end with the PCs rendering the NPC effectively helpless, then hacking it to bits.

I'm starting to wish for more Fireballs and Lightning Bolts

 

[Deekin]

Hiya,

Amongst my group of friends, there has often been a conceit that wizards who resort to Fireball and Magic Missile are unoriginal and therefore poor choices. I never quite understood the logic myself, but as the DM I tried to let them play the characters they want.

The current party wizard is a level 7 character who specialises in non-damaging combat spells. His favourites include Summon Monster (always Fire Beetles or Celestial Bison), Grease, Obscuring Mist, Web, Haste and Glitterdust.

Grease and Web aren't "save-or-die" spells, but I dread them nonetheless:

a) They make creatures boring to run - oops, I failed a balance check or a reflex save, no movement for me! Nothing makes a big boss lose his aura of menace like repeatedly falling over in his square.

b) They add to the book-keeping - a Fireball kills the monsters and is done with it. A Web doesn't kill the monster, but it adds a lot of overhead to the battle, and drags them out.

c) They just aren't very heroic - it seems that most battles against powerful opponents end with the PCs rendering the NPC effectively helpless, then hacking it to bits.

I'm starting to wish for more Fireballs and Lightning Bolts

Granted, it's been statisticly proven that Evocation spells that deal d6/level are some of the worst spells you can use.

 

[Slife]

^ Agreed. Blast spells are some of the least effective things a wizard can do.

Granted, given how powerful wizards are, it doesn't matter that much. And blowing stuff up is always fun.

 

[AnonymousOne]

And blowing stuff up is always fun.

/cosign

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Don't get me wrong- there is nothing like "Tim" blasting the enemies to hell, but personally, I've been around so many sleep, fireball & MM flinging mages that in my 30 years in the hobby, I can honestly say I've almost never run a PC with those spells. On a certain level, they bore me. Most of my mages have been Illusionists or the the equivalent of 3.5 Transmuters & Diviners.

Mages are supposed to be powerful and mysterious- I'm just not going to play a cookie-cutter spellcaster because it seems to rob them of that air of mystery when all mages have the same spells & tactics.

 

[Shawn_Kehoe]

Don't get me wrong- there is nothing like "Tim" blasting the enemies to hell, but personally, I've been around so many sleep, fireball & MM flinging mages that in my 30 years in the hobby, I can honestly say I've almost never run a PC with those spells. On a certain level, they bore me. Most of my mages have been Illusionists or the the equivalent of 3.5 Transmuters & Diviners.

Mages are supposed to be powerful and mysterious- I'm just not going to play a cookie-cutter spellcaster because it seems to rob them of that air of mystery when all mages have the same spells & tactics.

Which is cool. What annoys me is how almost all of his spells cripple-but-don't-kill, simultaneously making the monsters less fun and more book-keeping to run.

 

[Shawn_Kehoe]

Granted, it's been statisticly proven that Evocation spells that deal d6/level are some of the worst spells you can use.

Believe me, I'm sure he's weighed that. The man loves to optomise characters in CRPGs. A summon monster spell is highly efficient - damage delivered over multiple turns, and a meat shield to absorb damage.

Shawn

 

[jdrakeh]

Which is cool. What annoys me is how almost all of his spells cripple-but-don't-kill, simultaneously making the monsters less fun and more book-keeping to run.

What I keep reading is "It sucks that my player made a very efficient character!" But that's the danger of arming the PCs with a rule set that makes such things possible. If this truly bothers you, my suggestion would be to switch to a different spell system that does more to limit the ease with which spells can be cast (I recommend the system in Legends of Excalibur or d20 Slayers).

 

[Shawn_Kehoe]

What I keep reading is "It sucks that my player made a very efficient character!"

Efficient characters are well and good, but when it comes down to using the same three or four tricks, all of which prevent me from doing anything interesting with the NPCs in combat ... it sucks a lot of fun out of it.

 

[Tarek]

Lightning bolt lost a LOT of its utility in 3e. The ability to start the lightning bolt some distance away from you really helped a lot and made it tactically flexible in 1st and 2nd. In 3e, it became a "line" which means it starts at the caster. That means to use it effectively, the caster must be on the front line.

This is not a good thing for a wizard.

Glitterdust is okay, Haste is good, Grease is extremely annoying because it applies to everyone, Web is occasionally useful but is easily circumvented for higher HD creatures, Obscuring Mist is a real PITA on either side of the screen, Summon Monster is okay.

Ring of Freedom of Movement or Ring of Water Walking is a great counter to Grease. Or even an Amulet of Sphere of Lesser Invulnerability. "HaHA! Your spells of 3rd level or less have no effect upon ME or anyone else in the area around me!!!" Ideally, make them charged items with limited charges, so that your players don't get the idea that they can just take these items from the monsters and use them to make themselves invulnerable to their own spells.

Also, try turning the tables on them. Obscuring Mist + Fiendish Scorpions. "You can't see me half the time but I don't need to see to sting you."

After a few combats like that, the wizard might start getting the point. Especially when you throw in an apprentice or two with a low-charge Wand of Fireballs to the enemy's list of spellcasters.

The longer he mucks around with non-damaging spells, the longer the enemies have to dish out damage against the party.